Modeling and Analysis of Human Binocular Perception of Position and Velocity in the Visual Cortex

This research focuses on developing a novel mapping for human visual perception from visual field to the primary visual cortex based on spatial and physiological characteristics of visual pathway. First, a spatial relationship between single visible spot in the visual field and its retinal projection on the spherical surface for a monocular vision system was established. A novel approach, called "peel-off mapping, was then formulated in dealing with flattening the spherical retina to a 2-dimensional (2-D) plane before being mapped to the visual cortex. Velocity level mapping that described how a visible moving spot was projected from visual field to the spherical retinal surface was developed and then mapped onto the visual cortex. More importantly, all the kinematical relationships established for monocular system were extended to binocular vision. Finally, a complete model was developed that allows for quantitative computation of binocular disparity as well as disparity due to stereo-motion in the primary visual cortex. Software has been written and simulation results validated the model.